Listening [Proper 9B]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 6:1-13 Listening I will never, ever forget the first time I preached – because it was super weird. I had started a couple months earlier as the seminary intern at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chatham, New Jersey. I was still fairly new to the Episcopal Church, having been raised in the Pentecostal tradition. And Elizabeth, the Rector for whom I worked, gave me a couple months to immerse myself in the community before assigning me Advent 2, Year C. I had taught classes at the parish; I had given talks. But the sermon is different. There is really nothing quite like it. A sermon begins as something incredibly intimate – at its best, a private conversation between the preacher, the Holy Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit – one person’s fumbling attempt to say something true, to preach something faithful, to relay what it seems God wants the congregation to hear that week. And then, that immen...